Does it matter where a DVR's hard drive lives? Hardware from outfits such as TiVo records shows onto a local disk, but the cable provider Cablevision decided to dispense with dedicated hardware and a local drive, and instead it rolled out a service where users could record shows through their existing cable box; those recordings stayed on a remote server in the central office for storage and playback. Content providers sued, alleging copyright violations, and they won a landmark injunction that blocked deployment of the system. But Cablevision appealed, and has now won a sweeping victory that may clear the way for the company to deploy its remote DVR service after all.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080804-cablevision-wins-on-appeal-remote-dvr-lawful-after-all.html
This ruling yesterday http://www.publicknowledge.org/pdf/cablevision-judgement-20070322.pdf allowing Cablevision to roll out their 'remote dvr' service where your dvr recordings are stored at a central location is a great win for common sense over Hollywood.
However...... I haven't seen a single press article yet about what this potentially could mean in the wider scope of things.
I'm not sure why, I guess the press isn't necessarily there to 'speculate on the news' or maybe I'm totally wrong but if I'm right this could be the biggest thing since Sony Betamax time shifting court case.
Basically what 'I' think this ruling means is that the United States Southern District Appeals Court has approved is the 'Cloud'ification of your entertainment content.
For the first time clear precedent now exists that I can purchase content and not need physical control of the content - it is there for me to access when and where I want - with the limitation that I'm the only person who is able to access it (limiting public performance).
So If I purchase a MP3, no longer does it need to be stored on my iPod but I might choose to listen to it on my desktop pc, or I might choose to stream it to my cell phone or even a laptop when I'm working remotely from my hotel room.
Does this cloudification open the possibility of a major competitor to the Apple dominance in music sales? Will Pandora implement a new version of their applications?
Or even does the newly merged Sirius/XM Radio satellite content company find themselves in a pivotal lead for a new class of 'anywhere anytime' content delivery hardware box?
What do you think? I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this.
Does this really even matter to you?
Cheers,
Dean
BTW The first vendor who will accept the delivery, encoding, remote hosting and physical safe storage of my already purchased cd collection with a monthly fee for streaming of that music content I have legally purchased 'back to me' anywhere/anytime will be sure to get my business.
P.S. Can you believe the domain http://www.cloudification.net/ wasn't taken.... I just bought it - any thoughts on what I should do with it now? :)
You wrote:
ReplyDelete"BTW The first vendor who will accept the delivery, encoding, remote hosting and physical safe storage of my already purchased cd collection with a monthly fee for streaming of that music content I have legally purchased 'back to me' anywhere/anytime will be sure to get my business."
That was already tried back in 2000 with my.MP3.com, which lost a copyright action at trial and settled instead of appealing. Maybe it's time for somebody to try again. I wrote about this on my own blog: http://kaplan-myrth.ca/Main/CourtRulesThatVideoCanLiveInTheCloud
It seems to me this could be HUGE. Consider 10,000 customers using Cablevisions remote DVR service. That means that every single channel will probably be recorded by someone. Since they will have to record every channel, and there would be no point in storeing multiple copies of a program, they will be able to let customers DVR EVERY CHANNEL. If they are visionaries, they will allow that without charging a premium, and also allow subscribers from any place on the planet. Serve the DVRed content over the internet in addition to cable. If I sign up with them and pay for a cable standard package, I can watch anything that has ever been on cable since I began subscribing. This could be amazon.com HUGE.
ReplyDeleteHi Got,
ReplyDeleteIt appears you haven't read the article - they would have to record it for your specifically to get around the public broadcasting issues.
So as you cant record 'all channels at once' you would still be limited in what you get to 'recall'.
Though expect Cablevision to be charging by the hour for storage in the near future and yes that will be big business / profitable too.
Cheers,
Dean
The problem is licensing. I know this from experience. The people who hold the licensing do not want someone else having the ability to sell their material. When you legally purchase MP3s it is with a limited license.
ReplyDeleteRe what @Buck just wrote, note that lala.com recently re-launched allowing users to not only buy music on the site but to make their current collection of mp3 files available for streaming from the site (only in the United States, so far). What's more, they did this with the agreement of the music publishers.
ReplyDeleteThe further cloudification of entertainment.